Coke oven



Patented Feb. 8, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE V COKE OVEN Charles Holzworth, North Tonawanda, N. Y.

Application August 29, 1941, Serial No. 408,805

' lClaims. fc1.202-26) This invention relates generally. to improvements in coke ovens and in the process of coking.

It has for one of its objects to provide novel means or equipment for installation in coke ovens designed to compact and insulate the pulverized coal or screenings of coal to thereby not only assure the coking of the coal into a mass of maximum density and suitable for metallurgical purposes, but to retard the heat transfer through the oven and afford the thorough coking of the top part of the coal mass as well as the lower portion thereof, all tothe end of increasing the yield and the quality of the coke.

Another object of the invention is to provide a coke oven with equipment of this character which is simple, compact and rugged in construction, and which is so mounted as to be readily adjusted in the oven-chamber to assume its normal compacting or compressing position over the coal or to assume an elevated charging position above the coal.

A further object is to provide an adjustable weighted means for effectually compressing and insulating the coal charge during the coking operation, and which means has openings therein for charging the oven in one position thereof and which in its other or operative position permits the escape of the distilled gases from the coal.

Other features of the invention reside in the construction and arrangement of parts hereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a sectional front elevation of a coke oven equipped with my improvement. Figure 2 is a cross section thereof taken on line 2-2, Figure 1. Figure 3 is a detached perspective view of a section of one of the compacting and in sulating plates. Figure 4 is a cross section thereof taken on line 44, Figure 3.

Similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views.

This invention has been more particularly designed for application to coke ovens of the character having relatively wide doors and wide fiat floors with part or all of the heat for coking supplied through and under the floor of the oven, and still more particularly adaptable to the Knowles-Curran type of oven which is a re-designed, so-called Belgian, rectangular bee-hive oven converted into a retort oven to reclaim by-products formerly wasted.

Referring now to the drawing, l indicates the body of the oven having a plurality of coking chambers II which may be approximately five to ten feet wide, thirty feet long and four feet high, with the coke charge about eighteen inches deep. The heat for the coking operation is supplied through fiues 12 located beneath the floors of the oven chambers. In its top wall each chamber has one or more fuel-charging openings i3 normally closed by covers l4, and a gasventing flue l5 opening at its upper end into a gas collector or manifold 16.

In this type of coke oven, the coke produced is too soft and too low in density to be used for metallurgical purposes, this condition being due to the fact that the top portion of the coke charge is not cohered and consequently remains in small particles called. coke breeze or pebble and amounts to as high as 15% of the coke produced. To overcome these objections and lack of efiiciency in the coking operation, I provide a means which functions, in part, to compact or compress the coke charge and thereby increase the density of the mass and insure coking of the coal into one coherent mass and of dense quality. This same means also functions as an insulator to retard the heat transfer from the heating fiues into the oven chambers, thereby causing the top portion of the coke charge to be as thoroughly coked as the lower or remaining portion.

In its preferred construction, this means for compressing and insulating the coke charge during the coking operation consists of a plate-like member or cover I! of substantial weight, made of cast iron or the like and lined with a suitable refractory material, and adapted to be adjustably mounted Within the coke chamber II for move ment to and from a position in overlying relation to substantially the entire surface area of the coke charge. This cover may be composed of a plurality of sections M, such as that depicted in Figure 3, bolted or otherwise joined in the man-- ner shown in Figure 2 to form a composite cover unit. As shown in Figures 1 and 2, each cover is approximately of the same dimensions in length and width as the oven chambers, having proper clearance with the walls thereof to permit raising and lowering of the cover. In this connection, the cover is suspended from a plurality of cables I9 passing at their upper ends around winches 20 which may be operated manually by a hand crank 2! or by an electric motor or the like.

Each cover I! has one or more fuel-charging openings 22' therein which are alined with the companion oven-charging openings l3 and through which the coke charge is introduced when the cover is in its elevated position. In the lowered or operative position of the cover shown in the drawing, these same opening constitute vents for the escape of the distilled gases emitted from the charge during the coking process, such gases being thereupon discharged into the gas collectorJfi through the fiues l5.

While manifestly simple and inexepensive in construction, and easy to install and manipulate, this improved coke oven equipment efiectually compacts and compresses the coke charge into a coherent mass of dense quality and increases the yield of the oven to a maximum. Furthermore, by my invention the transfer of heat through the oven is retarded, resulting in the top portion of the coke charge being as thoroughly coked as its lower portion.

I claim .as my invention:

:1. A coke oven, comprising a coking chamber having :a charging opening :therein, means for heating said chamber, and plate-like means mounted in said chamber for movement to and fromca position in overlying engagement with the coke-forming char e to compress the same during the coking operation, said plate-like means havin an opening therein in alined relation with -.the charging opening for introducing the charge to said chamber in one position of such means and serving asa vent for the escape of the distilled gases in its other position.

2. A device for use in coke ovens having a charging opening therein, comprising a member of substantial weight adapted to be placed in the oven over the surface of a coke-charge and having an opening therein for registering alinement with said charging-opening andconstituting at one time a means for introducing the charge to the oven and at another time a means for venting the distilled gases from the charge during the coking operation, and means connected to said member for adjusting it vertically toiand from a position overlying the charge.

3. In a coke oven, a coking chamber having an opening in its top for introducing the coal charge thereto, and a cover of substantial weight suspended in ,said chamber for movement into and out of overlying engagement with the surface area of the-coal charge to compress the same, said cover having an opening therein alined with said chamber-opening and through which the charge is delivered into the coking chamber.

4. In a horizontal sole-flue heated oven of greater Width than height, va coking chamber having an opening in its top for introducing the ,coal charge thereto, and a cover suspended in said chamber for movement into and outof overlying engagement with the surface area of the coal charge to compress the-same, said cover having an opening therein alined with said chamber-opening and through which the charge is delivered into the coking chamber.

CHARLES R. HOLZWORTH. 

